Earlier,
relatives of 44 of the 150 victims viewed their coffins inside a hangar at
Duesseldorf airport.

The
victims’ remains are the first to be repatriated following delays over errors
on the death certificates.

Co-pilot
Andreas Lubitz is believed to have deliberately crashed the Airbus A320 into
the French Alps in March.

Candles
lit

Eighteen
of the victims – 16 schoolchildren and two teachers – were from the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium
school in the north-western German town of Haltern and had been returning from
an exchange trip in Barcelona when the plane crashed.

White
hearses carried the children’s remains from Duesseldorf airport while the
coffins of the two teachers were in black hearses.

White
candles were lit in the school grounds, where 18 trees – one for each victim –
were recently planted as a memorial.

Faces of some of those on board the Airplane

Flags on
the town hall in Haltern were at half-mast.

Haltern
Mayor Bodo Klimpel said there was a sense of relief in the town now that the
children’s remains had been repatriated.

“After so
many weeks of waiting, especially for the relatives, we are of course relieved
that we have them back,” he said.

“It was
very moving when we left the motorway and entered town, how people showed their
sympathy by lining the streets, praying and crying.”

Ulrich
Wessel, the school’s headmaster, said it had been an important event.

“From
Friday, the burials will take place over the course of two weeks and this will
be a further horrible moment, having to say goodbye to the children. So today
was brutal but, at the same time, important.”

The
remains of the rest of the victims will be repatriated over the coming weeks.
The passengers were from 18 countries, including Australia, Argentina and
Japan, but most of those on board were either Spanish or German.